1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a printer, a POS system, a wireless communication control method, and a data storage medium on which a program for the control method is carried. The invention relates more particularly to a printer having a wired connection port, a wireless communication device for sending and receiving data by wireless communication, a received data processing unit for controlling received data, and a print processing mechanism for running a printing process.
2. Description of the Related Art
Multiple POS terminals each comprising a host controller, input device, display device, and printer for printing receipts for purchased products and product order forms are typically connected via a LAN (local area network) or other wired or wireless network architecture to create a POS system. Once a POS system is assembled it can be reconfigured to create an even better POS system as needs and conditions change.
Reconfiguring a POS system, that is, changing the configuration of components in a POS system, is, however, not easy, and changing the configuration of a deployed system already in use is even more difficult. A POS system can be initially built as an extensible system so that the system configuration can later be changed, anticipating the need for additional POS terminals and the configuration of the POS terminals. However, assuring the ability to reconfigure the POS system creates such problems as wasted installation space and requiring more time to develop and build the system. Furthermore, adding a new POS terminal to a POS system requires temporarily shutting down the entire system and changing the LAN or other network connections. Modifying a system is therefore both time consuming and costly.
Incorporating a wireless communication device in the host controller of the POS terminal so that wireless communication can be used instead of a physical connection to the network (LAN) is one potential solution, but the added wireless communication device then occupies a physical port. This also requires either modifying the host controller to incorporate the wireless communication device or replacing the host controller with a host controller having a wireless communication module. A problem with this is that it is also necessary to change the host controller software or make other system-wide changes. Further time and money is therefore also needed to make such system-wide changes.
Yet another problem is that communication performance varies with the location of the antenna of the wireless communication device, and finding the ideal antenna location is not easy.